Alara'keelan: Timeline
The following information is a summary of Alara'Keelan's history, drawn from what the party has learned through literature and first-hand experience. It may not truthfully reflect the world's history and/or backstory. ''' Creation Lore and Prehistory This is by in large the Daranite take on the Alara'Keelan creation mythos. Entry's are listed in the generally accepted chronological order. The Formation of the World and the Sacred Court *The Material Plane is born from without the Void by '''TOR, the prime Mover and Creator, an entity above all others. Desiring a commune of minds to rule and nurture the Material Plane, TOR takes aspects of his likeness and fashions them into a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. He blesses them with free will, and grants them a fraction of His power, to enable them as deputies of His divine plan for creation. Collectively, they are known as the Divines, or the Sacred Court. The individual Gods are as follows (based upon what he party has currently discovered). Move this to Pantheon in a bit. :Pherious, '''god of knowledge, discovery, of exploration, and of the literature that springs forth from such pursuits. Before the Cataclysm, most academic institutions regarded him as their divine patron. His visage is that of a tall, black bearded man with untidy hair and worn traveling clothes, holding a beaten quarterstaff in one hand and a pristine leather journal in the other. His commands are to understand your surroundings, seek and discover until you know what you need from life (and can get it), and to record your discoveries so that future generations may share in your knowledge. Parents with children infected by wanderlust often blame Pherious for taking a personal hand in their affairs. Halfings who seperate from their community often revere him over '''Johalosi, their race's commonly accepted patron. Closest alignment is Neutral Good. :Darasion, 'god of merchants, structure, and orderly society. Often labled "The Architect of Civilization," Darasion is attributed with arranging the human tribes of the Daren penninsula into city-states (despite the fact that, once formed, they immediately began to clash with one another). Depictions of the Sacred Court paint Danasious as the court burrecrat, presiding over meetings and setting down rules of common conduct and courtesy. The first officially mandated code of law (set down by the pre-unification state of Hul-Anon) was named the "Daranite Codex"; since then, the 'Dara' prefix has found it's way into much of the terminology used on the easten shores of the Alara continent. The more negative view of Darasion shows him as a constant meddler, a fussy overlord who imposes his take on society - whether or not people desire such imposition. Was the pre-cataclysm patron of trade and exchange, of the Daranite empire, and of the bloodline of the Oridion kings. Darasion commands his followers to band together, to organize, to structure society so as to collectively share the fruits of labor and life. Closest alignment is Lawful Neutral. : :'Kharadras, 'god of philosophy, of wit and guile, of magic and magical practice. Called the "Fateshaper," ''not ''because of an assumed power over fate, but his oft-stated belief that individuals have a right to their personal individuality, of shaping their own fates and futures. Often held to be the mental paradigm, of both Gods and men. This has also resulted in Kharadras and his followers being branded as argumentative and stubborn. His followers are widely-ranged, from the scholarly Wizard, to the independent trickster and rogue. Religious texts derived from the followers of Kharadras's kin often describe him as brash and uncooperative. Kinder literature describes him as chief friend of mortals, as their representative amongst a short-sighted, dogmatic pantheon. Kharadras commands his followers to educate themselves, to question purpose and meaning, to follow their "drum beat" and no one elses. Closest alignment is Chaotic Good. :'Lady Fain, '''goddess of death, of secrets, of passage from death into the world beyond. There exists little information on the goddess of death, save that she resides primarily in the Shadowfell; even her own name, Lady Fain, is an obvious fake (fain being a pun on 'feign death'). No one knows who her followers are, or how they make themselves known to one another. Evidence does exist, however, that temples in her name exist all over Alara'Keelan. Her only known command is also verafiable as a direct quote: "Know death, and accept it for what it is" - a meaningless phrase many have struggled with, to little success. Closest alignment is True Neutral (for lack of a better descriptor). :Lady Fain is the only deity the players have met in person. In that instance, she appeared as a young woman, with black hair, green eyes, fair skin, and a black tank top with matching skirt, buckled with silver and gemstones. Fain was observed talking with Thane Graise. Shortly after, she gave Oran a peck on the cheek for being 'such a dear.' *TOR commands the Sacred Court to populate the darkness of the material plane with light, with holy fire and celestial bodies. From raw, elemental energy they weave matter: stars, planets, and every being in the Heavens. TOR looks upon their labors and is pleased with their work, and rewards them with the power of ensouling, whereby a being of divine power can grant free will and sentience to otherwise souless matter - a providence only TOR can truly command. TOR then guides the divines to a world of their making, a blank slate left for a greater vision. He names it '''Alakelaris, and commands each divine to fashion a portion of it in their image, at which point these areas will be joined through further forces into a harmonious whole. *Each Deity thus fashions an area of Alakelaris, each drawing from aspects of the Inner Elemental Planes, and realizing them in the Material. Before they can show their works to TOR, however, the Elemental Lords of the Inner Planes become aware of the outgoing threads woven with their powers, and descend with great armies upon the material plane, lusting for new lands and new wealth. Their first strike against the Sacred Court is parried, its power instead striking the world below, forever rending in half the great continent the divines had created to be the seat of TOR's greater creations. The oceans rush in to fill the great chasm caused by the Elemental Lords attack, and two continents now cover the worlds surface. The continent west of this great divide is named Alara, the other, Keelan. *After weathering the intial assult, the Sacred Court combines and launches a counterattack. The Elemental Lords are defeated in a single, decisive battle. To prevent their further intereference with the world, the Sacred Court forever severs the connection between the Lords and the Inner Planes, locking them within the core of Alara'Keelan that their first assault laid bare. The Sacred Court then reseals Alara'Keelan's core, and the Elemental Lords are doomed to an eternity of imprisonment. *Seeing the devestation wrought by one attack from outsiders, the Sacred Court prays for Tor's intervention and protection. TOR answers them by fashioning two planes from the already woven elemental energies of Alara'Keelan. Each one is thus a mirror of the Prime Material, and each represents an equal and opposite aspect of their mother plane. TOR then causes them to overlap the Prime Material, so as to provide protection, a buffer against further attack. Mortal-kind would later label them the Shadowfell '''and the '''Feywild. Convinced of their worlds safety, the Sacred Court proceeds to seed Alara'Keelan with a bounty of life, a wide diversity of creatures to inhabit every corner of the world. Time passes as the Sacred Court allows their creations to ripen. *Life thus evolves, until such time as certian creatures can withstand the ensouling power of TOR, channeled through the Divines. Once this time comes, TOR comes at their behest and breathes new life into these select creatures: humans, dwarves, halflings, dragons, goblins, orcs and gnomes. The Eladrin are also brought into being as part of the Feywild, bringing completion to the life-vibrant demi-plane, and are also ensouled. Every form of free-willed life on Alara'Keelan is taken under wing by the Divines, who directly guide and teach these new beings. These new beings are collectively known as the Progenitors, and are created Semi-Divine in power. The Progenitors band together over time, forming loose groups and collectives, and with their innate power, they are more than able to take care of their own needs. This simple, vibrant time, unknowing of darker urges or temptations, lasts for an indeterminate amount of time. The Hubris of the Progenitors, and the First Ages of Civilized History